


twelve cookies to a box

by mistyheartrbs



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, just so much fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24092068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistyheartrbs/pseuds/mistyheartrbs
Summary: Catra wasn't looking for friends. Adora wasn't looking for distractions.Of course, things wouldn't go as planned for them.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 88





	twelve cookies to a box

**Author's Note:**

> this was 100% inspired by noelle stevenson's answer to the q&a about what adora and catra would major in

Twelve cookies to a box. 

There was some free reign given as to which cookies those could be, as long as there were at least three chocolate chips and no more than four of any one category. Catra wondered if someone had broken those rules at some point, or if they’d been unspoken, a “general consensus” as her sociology professor would call it.

She quickly jotted _chocolate chip sociology?_ on a sticky note, as if that would make any sense to her in an hour.

“Howdy, Wildcat!” Scorpia - a coworker, and maybe possibly if you held Catra at knifepoint or something to that effect the closest thing she had to a friend - leaned on the counter as if she had nothing troubling her at all. She probably didn’t. “Sorry I’m late, traffic was _brutal!_ Seriously, it’s like they design it so the cars just creep along the road like little ants.”

“It’s fine. Just give me a hand with these, alright? We’re almost out of folded boxes.”

“Sure, sure.” Scorpia, a coworker and possible friend and a young woman who clearly never learned what _personal space_ was, peered over Catra’s shoulder. “You oughta add some peanut butter ones to that. I hear they’re selling pretty well.”

“Hm. Okay.” Catra glanced at her, a quick and darting look. “Are you going to fold the boxes?”

“You know I’m not the best at that…” Scorpia trailed off. Catra sighed.

“Fine. Just pick out an arrangement.” Waving her off with a hand, she turned back to folding the boxes. Unlike the cookies, there was no free reign given here. It was methodical, precise. One wrong move and the entire thing would collapse under itself, taking the cookies with it. Not that it really mattered - they’d still taste fine. 

(Scorpia asked her, sometimes, why she worked here when her college had a perfectly good work-study program, and it was easy enough to lie and say it was because of the free food)

“Hey, did you see _Jeopardy_ last night? Lemme tell ya, some of those questions would’ve had anyone stumped!” Scorpia laughed to herself. “Oh, but it’s a good time. Even though I’m more of a _Dancing With the Stars_ gal, it works as a good enough replacement on the off-season.”

“Hrmph.”

“What’s got you in a mood?” 

“Nothing.”

“I’ve seen nothing, Wildcat, and it’s not the look you’re giving the counter. Like you’re about to kill it with your eyes.” 

“It’s just…” Catra squeezed her eyes shut, tried to will the world away. “Midterms. You know.” 

“Mm, yeah, it’s a tough world out there. What’s the subject?”

“English. Narratives of...something or other. Also Earth Science, but I have that one down pretty well.”

“You know there’s no shame in asking for help.” Scorpia never had anything but kindness in her gaze, and it was a mystery to Catra how someone could remain that hopeful - that _naive_ \- at twenty. 

“There is if nobody knows who you are.”

“Because you spend all your time here!” Scorpia thrust her arms in the air, nearly flipping over her box. Catra dove to rescue it. “Why don’t you live a little? Listen, I have deliveries for most of the evening, but afterwards maybe we could go out on the town, see a movie? Whaddaya say?”

“No.” 

“Hmm, suit yourself. At least Mr. H likes you.” 

“Don’t remind me.” Catra folded her arms.

“It took you forever to get on his good side, and now you are! That’s something to be proud of, right?”

“It would be if he knew how to run the place.”

“Listen, maybe he’s a little eccentric, so’re you! So am I! Isn’t that what makes this place something special?”

“It’s a chain restaurant that exists to sell cookies to college students at two in the morning. It’s not exactly a tight-knit family.”

“It would be if you let it be.”

“I have too much work for that.” Catra slammed one of the boxes closed with a little more force than the action warranted, nearly crumpling it. “Shit.”

“You really need to get out, Wildcat.” Scorpia stared out at the street, the people walking past, and stroked the cat-ear hat on Catra’s head like it was alive. 

(As if even _she_ was alive, at this point)

“Hrm?”

“You’ll get burnt out, going on like this.”

***

Hours passed, as they tended to do, and they passed slowly, as they tended to do on days like this. Boxes were folded, cookies were placed, and occasionally Mr. H would peek his head out of his office and click his teeth disapprovingly and that would be it. 

“I can drop you back off at Brightmoon if you want!” Scorpia called from her glistening red monstrosity of a car, an old Bug that looked like it could hardly hold one person, let alone two. “I’m supposed to feed Emily every night and her house is on the way, so…” Catra grimaced.

“I think I’ll walk,” she muttered, clutching her notes in one hand and a bag of stale cookies in the other. “It’ll help clear my head.”

“Alright, whatever you say! See you tomorrow!” Scorpia sped away, then, and Catra watched her leave until her car was just a bright red dot in the distance. 

***

Brightmoon was not the worst place to be, when it came down to it. Their terrible mascot aside - _the_ Princesses, _really?_ \- it was fine, a good enough place to get an education, but right now more than anything what Catra appreciated was the late-night coffeeshop located in the basement of the library, away from the prying eyes of the world. 

***

“Ha! One, two, and _ha!”_

 _“Adora, you don’t have to practice all the time, you know?”_ Glimmer’s voice rang out, a little quieter than usual, through the phone’s speaker, propped up as it was on a stack of textbooks. 

“Nobody shows up around now!” Adora thrust the broom forward again, backing up, parrying against an invisible enemy. “It’s the _perfect_ time to practice.”

 _“I thought you took this job to relax a little.”_ That was Bow, squeezing into the frame. _“Self-care is important, especially with the midterms coming up.”_

“This is self-care, for me.”

_“Hitting things with a broom?”_

“It helps ease up the tension. Nobody’s watching other than you two. It’s just me and the broom…” and here she paused, dramatically, because maybe she hadn’t gotten into the play this semester, or last semester, but she couldn’t help it sometimes. “...and _the stars.”_

 _“I’m going to be asleep once you’re back at the dorm, just so you know,”_ Glimmer continued, yawning as if to prove her own point. Bow nodded sagely. _“So if you could come back quietly I’d appreciate it.”_

“Uh-huh, sure. Quiet’s my middle name.” 

_“Great.”_

“And I’m getting really good at the evasive maneuvers, just so you know.” Adora swung the broom around, and just at that point the door banged open and a girl barged in and Adora knocked the phone clean off the counter.

“Hey,” the girl said, setting down her books on one of the couches. Adora blinked. 

“Hey,” she echoed.

 _“Adora?”_ Glimmer called from somewhere on the floor. _“What’s happening?”_

_“At least it’s not broken? I can still see the ceiling.”_

“Nice hat,” Adora said, in lieu of any functional conversational topics because her brain was in the process of honking _CUTE GIRL CUTE GIRL CUTE GIRL_ on a loop. The girl fiddled with one of its ears, like she’d forgotten it was there. 

“Thanks. One black coffee?”

“This late at night?” 

“You’re here, aren’t you?”

“Good point.” Adora hurried behind the counter and started up the machine, trying as subtly as she could to pick up her phone and then promptly shove it in her pocket.

_“Adora, we’re in your pocket now.”_

“Who’s that?”

“Nothing! Nobody! Just my friends. We call each other sometimes, when we don’t see each other all day.”

“They don’t go here, huh?”

“Well, I mean, Glimmer does, and Bow practically lives with us anyway, but sometimes when we’re busy it’s nice to stay in contact, right?”

“Hm.” 

“What’s your name? For the order.”

“We’re the only people in here.”

“How about as a friend, then?” Because that was a totally normal and non-flirty thing for someone to say. _Great going, Adora._

“Catra.”

“Oh, is that why you have the-”

“No.”

“Okay!” She chanced another look at the girl - Catra, apparently - and tried to place her face. “I’ve never seen you around here.”

“I don’t really like to make myself known. Easier to lurk in the shadows, y’know?” Catra leaned back in her chair and nearly tipped over. Adora snorted. 

“Because it’s _so_ shadowy here in the library.”

“It’s one of the creepier parts of campus, for sure.” Catra regained her composure, tapped her fingers on the counter. Pointy nails. Adora pressed down on the coffeemaker a little harder than she needed to. “I haven’t seen you around much either.”

“I’m the basketball team captain.”

“D’you have a name, Basketball Team Captain?” Catra drawled. 

“Adora. They, erm, don’t make us wear nametags. But I’m a second year. Also the lacrosse team captain? I don’t even like basketball that much.” 

“You’re busy, then.”

“Yeah. Probably why you haven’t…seen me.” Adora shoved the coffee forward, nearly sending some of it flying. Catra took a sniff, long and deliberate, and Adora wondered if she was teasing her or if she was just tired or if this was some kind of courtship ritual or something? Which it obviously wasn’t, because it was midnight and she’d been dancing with a broom hardly a minute ago. But the thought was still there, persistent, uncomfortable. She considered taking Bow and Glimmer out of her pocket and only decided against it when she saw Catra take a sip and promptly glare right down at the cup like it had slighted her, somehow. “Something wrong with the coffee?”

“It’s - _khack_ \- fine. Just. Bitter.”

“I mean, it is black coffee. That’s the point of it, right?”

“The point is not falling asleep.” Catra flipped open a textbook, then, started jotting down notes in the margins in chicken-scratch handwriting. 

“What’s your major?”

“Insomnia and chaos,” Catra retorted dryly, not looking up. Adora stared, a little blankly. “I’m undeclared.”

“Huh.”

“Probably gonna go into business or something, though. Something practical.” Catra didn’t sound thrilled about the idea. It rained a little outside - not enough to be a problem for anyone, but nice enough to sound like something, like beginnings. 

“Is that what you want?” Adora asked, because she couldn’t help it, because her filter was kind of turned off what with the hour it was and Catra was staring at her like that and she hadn’t touched her coffee since that first sip. Catra didn’t speak for a moment, and Adora feared she’d misstepped until she heard a high-pitched cackle. “Catra?” Catra pulled her hat over her eyes, chuckling to herself. 

“Oh, you’re a funny one, Adora! No wonder you’re captain of the sports teams!”

 _What?_ “What?”

“Just, ah, going for it like that.” Catra made loops in the air with her pointer finger. “Must serve you well on the sports field.”

“We play on a court, actually…”

“Eh, same difference.” Catra waved her off with a hand, and for one strange and overpowering moment Adora wondered what it would be like to press her lips to that hand, if she had more freckles up close. Then she smiled again and the light fixtures in the library basement were nobody’s priority so they weren’t great but it seemed like the entire place was brilliant, just then. Adora cleared her throat.

“Awesome. Thank you. For the…compliment.”

“Don’t mention it.” Catra dropped a bill and a handful of quarters on the counter and started to walk off. “Hey, Adora?”

“Yeah?”

“Hold the broom with both hands. It’ll give you better thrust.” 

“Oh. It was nice meeting you?”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Catra plopped herself onto the couch, spreading out her books. “I’ll probably be here all night. You ought to go home if your shift’s over, though.”

“I’m still here for another ten minutes.”

“Call me your closing customer, then.” Catra hunched over the notes like an archeologist, like she was trying to piece something together, and under her breath she muttered _chocolate chip sociology_ and Adora couldn’t help but wonder if that was a euphemism for something. 

***

It was Catra’s one day off, as it turned out, and Saturday to boot, so she wasn’t really all that bothered when she rolled over and saw _12:01_ flashing on her alarm clock, a penguin-shaped thing Scorpia had gotten her for Halloween even though Halloween wasn’t really a holiday where people gave each other presents and she had her phone, she didn’t need another clock on top of that. 

(Nobody else was allowed to touch it.)

All of this translated into her not feeling guilty at all for staying in bed in her drafty single, scrolling mindlessly on her social media feed, the backs of her eyelids burning with celebrity photos and absurdist cat memes whenever she blinked.

**Scorpia: hey wildcat!!! :3  
Scorpia: look at this picture of emily!!**

Catra squinted at the phone screen, where she could just barely make out the blurry shape of a small dog. Idly, she tapped out _cute_ before hitting send and putting her phone away and flopping back over, burrowing herself under two blankets.

Of course, the reprieve didn’t last (what did?) and her phone beeped again.

**Scorpia: so listen, I know I can’t hang out because I’m housesitting still, but that doesn’t mean you can’t!**

***

“Remind me why we’re doing this in the middle of the day instead of just hanging out in our dorm?” Glimmer pondered aloud, spread out on one of the couches. Bow prodded at the precarious stack of magazines spread out on the coffee table. “Your shift’s not until nine.”

 _“Glimmer,”_ Bow hissed, trying to elbow her and missing by some margin. “We’re here to support her and that mystery girl. Aren’t we?”

“What? No. No! We’re here to study! See, look, I’m studying!” Adora held out her copy of _Beowulf_ to hide her face. “Hooray, studying.”

“You’re not convincing anyone,” Glimmer sighed. Adora set down the book.

“And what if I’m not? You heard her last night!”

“We _only_ heard her. You wouldn’t let us see!” Glimmer froze, then, as did Bow.

“Uh, Adora?” Bow squeaked out, voice cracking.

“Yeah?”

“This girl, she wouldn’t happen to have a cat-ear hat and a mean scowl, would she?”

“Yeah, wh-” The words died in Adora’s throat as she looked up to see Catra again, a bag of _something_ dangling off her arm as she hefted her books and dropped them on a chair.

“Oh. It’s you again.” 

“Yeah.”

“I thought you worked late.” Catra plopped down on the chair, then, licked her pointer finger and started flipping through one of her notebooks. 

“I just wanted to study.” Adora waved her hands in some kind of flippant gesture, trying to wave off any implications even if maybe, _maybe_ they weren’t _completely_ off the mark. Glimmer and Bow not-so-subtly snickered behind her. “What? I study!” 

“Not like this,” Glimmer said.

“Not in the middle of the day,” Bow said. Adora thought she might explode from embarrassment.

“These’re my friends,” she said, instead of anything that might’ve served to make her sound cool. “Glimmer and Bow.”

“Catra.” She didn’t stick out her hand, didn’t offer any more greeting than that. Adora wasn’t sure why she’d expected anything else. 

“Well, Catra, it’s nice to finally see you!” Bow started pushing Glimmer out the door, then, giving Adora a thumbs-up as he closed it behind him and left the pair alone. 

“So, they’re weird,” Catra grunted. 

“They’re my best friends, so watch it.”

“So, you’re protective.”

“I guess, yeah.” Adora noticed Glimmer’s phone sitting on the arm of the couch, one of those cute purple ones with the pool of glitter that moved when you shook it. She’d return it later, she decided. 

(On an unrelated note, she also decided to ask the pair of them what the _hell_ they were thinking leaving her with this stranger, even if she was cute and funny and kind of entrancing, even if-)

“Hey, Adora.” Catra rustled the bag, snapping her out of that particular train of thought. “If you’re here and you’re not…going anywhere.”

“I’m not?” Adora checked her watch. “Not until two, anyway. Baseball practice.”

“We have a baseball team?”

“Nope.”

“Well, if you’re not going anywhere, I have way too many of these.” Catra held out the bag - _a peace offering?_ \- and shook it again. “They’re already stale. Go and have a feast with your roommates or something.”

“What are they?” Adora peeked in the bag, half-expecting live snakes to spring out. She was greeted instead with the smell of cookies, intoxicating, _perfect._

“I work at the cookie place down the street. It’s less crowded than the dining halls, plus they let us take home whatever’s left over at the end of the day.” Catra held it out again. “The boss is a hardass and the hours suck, but other than that it’s fine.” 

“Oh. Okay. Uh, thanks?” Adora took the bag, carefully, and tried not to think about it too much when her hands brushed Catra’s, casually, just for half a moment. 

“Don’t mention it.” Catra stared down at the floor, at the carpet curling up in the corner because it was caught underneath a couch leg. “I’d just have thrown ‘em out otherwise.”

“You know that you don’t have to hide every nice thing behind excuses, right?” Adora tilted her head to the side, gave that winning half-smile that Glimmer said was definitely at least _part_ of why every girl in Brightmoon was in love with her. “Also, these look delicious.”

“It’s not like I made them. I just fold the boxes, sort them, that kind of thing.” 

“Well, either way,” and here Adora took a bite of one of them, “they’re good.” 

“They have to be, since everyone’s ordering them in the middle of the night.”

“It’s a great idea! Cookie delivery! I mean, it’s pretty much tailor-made for college students. Right?”

“Sure.” Catra chuckled a little, though, and Adora counted that as a win in her book. 

“But it’s true that I don’t have any plans.” Adora sat back down. “For the next two hours.” Catra sat down next to her, her stack of notebooks the only thing separating them. “If you want to hang out.” 

“Sure.”

“Really?” Adora’s heart did that _thing_ again, the thing where she seemed like it was trying to escape, too excited to stay in one place. Usually it was a feeling reserved for winning games, or even just scoring well, but nothing like that was happening right now.

Nothing other than this girl, next to her, offering her stale cookies, and it felt like a beginning.

“Yeah.” Catra leaned forward to get a better look at her notes, and her cat ears flopped over with the motion. “Why not, right?”

**Author's Note:**

> season five! in six days! oh my god!!!!!


End file.
